Keywords: Sheep killed by kea (cropped).jpg from Marriner 1907 The first dead sheep was found at the foot of the Rolleston Range about ten miles above the Rakaia Forks on a broad expanse of river-flat known at the homestead as the Top Flat The animal was a merino ram in splendid condition and from the place in which it was found it had apparently been chased by the bird or birds until it was cornered where two wire fences met and there injured The sheep was quite dead and lying on its wounded side On turning the beast over we found an ugly black-looking wound on the right loin at 11 in from the tail The hole was 5 in long by 4 in wide The wool was all torn off and the flesh was removed so that the transverse processes of lumbar vertebræ were visible Though a deep hole had been made in the flesh the birds had not reached the body-cavity nor had they injured the kidneys and from the appearance of the animal it seemed as if it had died from blood-poisoning Further up the back there were several other places where the wool had been picked We proped the sheep up in order to photograph it and on returning next day we found that the keas had evidently been at it as was shown by the wool which was scattered around the carcase Sheep_killed_by_kea jpg 2010-01-21 16 48 UTC Sheep_killed_by_kea jpg George R Marriner 1879-1910 derivative work Avenue <span class signature-talk >talk</span> Cropped further Avenue Sheep_killed_by_kea jpg PD-old-70-1923 original upload log This image is a derivative work of the following images File Sheep_killed_by_kea jpg licensed with PD-1923 PD-old 2010-01-21T16 45 56Z Avenue 1124x922 250524 Bytes <nowiki> from the article cited above The first dead sheep was found at the foot of the Rolleston Range about ten miles above the Rakaia Forks on a broad </nowiki> Uploaded with derivativeFX Nestor notabilis Predation Rams Dead sheep |